Be Quiet

Navigating societies arbitrary rules around who gets to speak and when.

How it feels when people are intolerant of who you are.

Be Quiet

SSSSSSSSShhhhhhhhhhhh,

there’s no place for loud in the world.

No place for the back and forth of people talking

over and over and over each other

adding to the bit of this and the bits of that

of an ever-expanding conversation. 

No place for rollicking laughter

bursting from one person to another

and then another and another

melding them together

in the pure joy of just being alive.

Always wondering. 

Always monitoring. 

Are you talking too much? 

Laughing too loud? 

Is the thundering in your chest,

leaving no room to breathe

too loud?  

Always watching for

the drawing of eyebrows

and the pursing of lips.

The barely contained groan

with the side-eye to others. 

And the whispers.

“God, she so loud.”

“I wish she’d shut up.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her about it.”

Their glaring daggers stabbing and twisting

into your throat,

your lungs,

your heart

is too much now.  

Sitting quietly,

waiting for your turn to speak

is too much now.   

The smile you gouge into your face

and knowing your place

is too much now.  

The unyielding weight

of their displeasure, dislike, dissatisfaction

is too much now. 

The abyss of their disapproval

is too wide,

too deep,

too sheer to climb out of now.

Their incessant demands for quietness

has driven you slowly mad.

You keep yourself locked away

from their hatred

of the loudness that is you. 

Silent.  

And alone.

The unyielding weight of their displeasure, dislike, dissatisfaction is too much now.

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Thanks for the photo Astro Wizard from Pexels